Weech-Maldonado Robert, Miller Michael J, Lord Justin C
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Health Services Administration, Birmingham, AL, USA.
Texas A&M University, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA.
Appl Res Qual Life. 2017 Jun;12(2):289-302. doi: 10.1007/s11482-017-9517-8. Epub 2017 Mar 31.
This article explores explore the relationships among socio-demographics, perceived health, and happiness in a patient population of 221 adults recruited from 39 primary care practices in Alabama. We also explored whether the relationship between socio-demographics and happiness is mediated by perceived health. The dependent variable, happiness, was dichotomized as happy versus unhappy. Independent variables or correlates of happiness included race (Black or White), age (< 65 vs. 65 and older), gender (male vs. female), perceived income (sufficient vs. insufficient to meet basic needs), health literacy (adequate vs. inadequate), and self-rated health (excellent/very good/good vs. poor/fair). Data were analyzed using generalized linear latent and mixed models to examine the relationship between happiness and its correlates. Our findings suggest that adequate health literacy and better perceived health are associated with an increase in the likelihood of happiness. In addition, the relationship between perceived sufficient income and happiness is mediated by perceived health; whereas, individuals with sufficient income are more likely to have better perceived health, and as a result more likely to be happy. Other individual factors, such as gender, age, and race were not significantly associated with being happy or having higher perceived health in any of the models. Results suggest that policies aimed at increasing health literacy, promoting health, and reducing income disparities may be associated with greater happiness.
本文探讨了从阿拉巴马州39家初级保健机构招募的221名成年患者群体中社会人口统计学、感知健康与幸福感之间的关系。我们还探讨了社会人口统计学与幸福感之间的关系是否由感知健康介导。因变量幸福感被分为幸福与不幸福。幸福感的自变量或相关因素包括种族（黑人或白人）、年龄（<65岁与65岁及以上）、性别（男性与女性）、感知收入（足以满足基本需求与不足以满足基本需求）、健康素养（足够与不足）以及自评健康（优秀/非常好/良好与差/一般）。使用广义线性潜在和混合模型分析数据，以检验幸福感与其相关因素之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，足够的健康素养和更好的感知健康与幸福感增加相关。此外，感知到足够的收入与幸福感之间的关系由感知健康介导；也就是说，收入足够的个体更有可能有更好的感知健康，因此更有可能感到幸福。在任何模型中，其他个体因素，如性别、年龄和种族，与幸福感或更高的感知健康均无显著关联。结果表明，旨在提高健康素养、促进健康和减少收入差距的政策可能与更高的幸福感相关。
